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Yankees' Teixeira, Gregorius remain sidelined Tuesday

by Michael Hurcomb | CBSSports.com

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira was held out of the spring lineup again Tuesday due to a bruised knee. However, manager Joe Girardi said Teixeira feels "decent" and is expected to play Wednesday, per Newsday.

Although, shortstop Didi Gregorius is not as close to returning. Girardi said he still has some swelling in his wrist and there is no timetable for his return.

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira has been diagnosed with a right knee contusion after being hit by a pitch in minor-league action Sunday, MLB.com reports.

Teixeira is icing the knee and not scheduled to undergo any further tests. He has hit .261/.306/.391 with one home run in 46 spring at-bats.

Manager Joe Girardi said after Sunday's game that Teixeira was not scheduled to play Monday or Tuesday even before the injury, and he expects the first baseman to be back in the lineup Wednesday, the New York Daily News reports.

Rodriguez missed all of last season after being suspended for his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal. With Chase Headley slated to be the team's starting third baseman, Rodriguez will compete for at-bats as a designated hitter and could see some time behind Headley at third and Mark Teixeira at first.

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira arrived to spring training Wednesday brimming with confidence following a productive offseason. Teixeira overhauled his diet and workout plan, as he cut gluten, dairy and sugar from his diet and went back to weight-heavy workouts, per The Journal News.

“I was weaker than I’d probably ever been in my whole career last year just because of the injury the year before and not being able to work out like I usually do,” Teixeira said. “This was just a great offseason all around. … I probably lost two pounds; 15 pounds of fat I lost and gained 13 pounds of muscle, so I ended up losing about two pounds. Just shows how much deficit there was.”

Teixeira hasn't played more than 123 games in any of the last three seasons due to injury issues. His offense has suffered during that time, as he has hit just .229 with a .431 slugging percentage since 2012. Still, Teixeira appears confident he will have a bounce-back year in 2015.

“I’ve always been a big, strong guy,” he said. “Always been a big weight lifter. I convinced myself one offseason that I wanted to work on my swing more, and swung so much that I blew out my wrist. You learn. You learn from mistakes. I think you’re always learning from mistakes. I kind of basically just went back to what I’ve always done, and that’s just hit the weights really hard because I need to be strong. I’m a power hitter, a guy that has to drive the ball from both sides of the plate, and that’s what I did this offseason.

"Last year, I came into spring training hoping to have a good year. I really didn’t know where I was. I knew I wasn’t feeling great, knew I wasn’t 100 percent. This year I expect to have a great year.”